DOCSLIB.ORG

Schadenfreude Deconstructed and Reconstructed: a Tripartite Motivational T Model ∗ Shensheng Wanga, , Scott O

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Schadenfreude Deconstructed and Reconstructed: a Tripartite Motivational T Model ∗ Shensheng Wanga, , Scott O New Ideas in Psychology 52 (2019) 1–11 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect New Ideas in Psychology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/newideapsych Schadenfreude deconstructed and reconstructed: A tripartite motivational T model ∗ Shensheng Wanga, , Scott O. Lilienfelda,b, Philippe Rochata a Department of Psychology, Emory University, 36 Eagle Row, Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA b School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, 3010, Australia ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Keywords: Schadenfreude is the distinctive pleasure people derive from others' misfortune. Research over the past three Schadenfreude decades points to the multifaceted nature of Schadenfreude rooted in humans’ concerns for social justice, self- Empathy evaluation, and social identity. Less is known, however, regarding how the differing facets of Schadenfreude are Dehumanization interrelated and take shape in response to these concerns. To address these questions, we review extant theories Inequity aversion in social psychology and draw upon evidence from developmental, personality, and clinical research literature to Psychopathy propose a novel, tripartite, taxonomy of Schadenfreude embedded in a motivational model. Our model posits Sadism that Schadenfreude comprises three separable but interrelated subforms (aggression, rivalry, and justice), which display different developmental trajectories and personality correlates. This model further posits that dehu- manization plays a central role in both eliciting Schadenfreude and integrating its various facets. In closing, we point to fruitful directions for future research motivated by this novel account of Schadenfreude. The word “Schadenfreude,” which literally means “harm joy” in related. In doing so, we propose a novel, tripartite, conception of German, refers to the uncanny yet widely shared experience of pleasure Schadenfreude embedded in a motivational model that should have or delight in the misfortune of others (Heider, 1958; Schadenfreude, considerable heuristic value in future theory and research on this n.d.). Despite the word's German origin, Schadenfreude is pervasive complex and poorly understood emotion. across many cultures (Feather, 2012), even those, such as U.S. culture, that do not possess a formal term for it (Feather, 1989; Nachman, 1. Theories of Schadenfreude in social psychology 1986). Among philosophers, the debate over the moral nature of Our review of the extant theoretical approaches to Schadenfreude Schadenfreude has lasted at least since the time of the ancient Greeks. focuses on presenting the gist of each while pointing to its potential Some scholars have condemned Schadenfreude as a malicious emotion limitations. On this basis, we seek to organize this complex body of (Aristotle, 350 BEC/1941; Heider, 1958; Schopenhauer, 1892), whereas literature on Schadenfreude and related domains by proposing a novel others perceived it as morally neutral or even virtuous (Nietzsche, taxonomy of Schadenfreude. For interested readers, van Dijk and 1887/1908; Portmann, 2000). Still, others judged Schadenfreude based Ouwerkerk (2014) provide more detailed overviews for each of the on the severity of misfortune and the role of the Schadenfroh (i.e., an following theories. individual who experiences Schadenfreude; McNamee, 2003) in causing the misfortune (Ben-Ze'ev, 1992). 1.1. Deservingness theory of Schadenfreude Although this philosophical debate is far from settled, it alludes to the different facets of Schadenfreude, which vary not only in their About three decades ago, Feather conducted the first laboratory moral values but also in their potential causes. Social psychologists in study on Schadenfreude, examining people's affective responses when the past three decades have provided helpful insights into high-status individuals fall from grace. Corroborating the common be- Schadenfreude by highlighting and elucidating its separable facets. In lief that people may sometimes derive pleasure when societally suc- this article, we first briefly review this literature and then draw from cessful individuals are cut down to size, Feather (1989) found that both developmental and individual differences approaches to address participants tended to experience greater delight in the misfortune of a how the multiple facets of Schadenfreude take shape and how they are high achiever and perceived him/her to be more deserving of the ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (S. Wang), [email protected] (S.O. Lilienfeld), [email protected] (P. Rochat). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2018.09.002 Received 30 July 2018; Received in revised form 6 September 2018; Accepted 12 September 2018 Available online 09 October 2018 0732-118X/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. S. Wang et al. New Ideas in Psychology 52 (2019) 1–11 misfortune than an average achiever, a tendency sometimes known as misfortune of the envied person, because it enhances the envious per- the “tall poppy” syndrome. son's self-evaluation (see van Dijk & Ouwerkerk, 2014). The other Research on the tall poppy syndrome led Feather to focus mainly on theory posits that others' misfortune is rewarding because envy is an perceived deservingness as a major, if not the only, variable to account unpleasant feeling that learning of other's misfortunes would knock the for Schadenfreude. Feather construed Schadenfreude as a justice-based envied person down a peg, rendering him or her less enviable. The emotion and proposed that individuals who believe that one's negative removal of envy would therefore constitute a relief, itself being a outcomes are deserved would experience delight when this person gets pleasant feeling (e.g., Rothbart, 1973). Although the two theories sug- his/her just deserts. Based on Heider’s (1958) principle of balance, gest somewhat different appraisals, they both point to a concern for Feather (1989) argued that whether an outcome is perceived as de- self-evaluation as a potential cause of Schadenfreude. served depends on the action that produces it. An outcome may be Despite evidence supporting the role of envy in experiencing perceived as deserved when the outcome and the action are consistent Schadenfreude (Smith et al., 1996; Takahashi et al., 2009), studies have or balanced (e.g., a positive outcome follows a positive action), but failed to replicate these findings (Feather & Sherman, 2002; Hareli & undeserved when the action is inconsistent or unbalanced. In addition, Weiner, 2002). van Dijk et al. (2006) suggested two crucial distinctions Feather maintained that liking/disliking, intergroup relations, and self- to account for these inconsistent results. First, researchers disagreed on evaluation also play key roles in evaluating the deservingness of a po- the definitions of envy and have distinguished between envy proper sitive or negative outcome related to either the self or others. In a series (also known as malicious envy) from benign envy, depending on whether of studies (Feather, 2008; Feather & Nairn, 2005; Feather & Sherman, envy entails hostility (see Smith & Kim, 2007). van Dijk et al. (2006) 2002), he and his colleagues systematically manipulated these variables found that in studies that supported the envy theory, researchers to examine their impact on perceived deservingness and participants' measured both aspects of envy (Smith & Kim, 2007; van de Ven, affective responses to the misfortune of others. The findings con- Zeelenberg, & Pieters, 2009), whereas in studies that did not support sistently supported a link between perceived deservingness and Scha- the envy theory, researchers assessed only the benign aspect.1 Second, denfreude. studies differed in the protagonist's relevance to the participants: the Despite Feather's success in linking perceived deservingness to envy theory was corroborated only when participants and the prota- Schadenfreude, his theory is marked by a number of limitations. One of gonist were of the same gender, a condition rendering the protagonist's the major limitations concerns the direction of relations between per- misfortune more relevant to the participants. ceived deservingness and Schadenfreude. Instead of perceived deserv- To unravel these factors, van Dijk et al. (2006) measured both ingness causing one to derive pleasure from others' misfortune, the (benign) envy and hostile emotions (as a proxy of envy proper) to as- person may feel Schadenfreude first and later justify his/her feelings by certain their independent contributions to Schadenfreude; they also perceiving the misfortune as deserved, a possibility consistent with manipulated the achievement status of the protagonist and included cognitive dissonance theory (Festinger & Carlsmith, 1959) that research both men and women to examine their potential effects on Schaden- has yet to exclude (Feather, 2012). Another limitation involves the freude. Participants were told about a protagonist of either high or assumption that the victim of a misfortune is responsible for his/her average status and rated their feelings of (benign) envy and hostile actions that led to the negative outcome. Nevertheless, Schadenfreude emotions; they then were informed of the protagonist's recent setback often occurs when this assumption is not met or assumed (e.g., Feather, and rated their feelings of Schadenfreude. Both hostility and (benign) 1989, Study 1). envy independently predicted Schadenfreude. Significant relations Despite these limitations, the perceived deservingness
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Affection Driven Neural Networks for Sentiment Analysis
    Proceedings of the 12th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC 2020), pages 112–119 Marseille, 11–16 May 2020 c European Language Resources Association (ELRA), licensed under CC-BY-NC Affection Driven Neural Networks for Sentiment Analysis Rong Xiang1, Yunfei Long34, Mingyu Wan25, Jinghang Gu2, Qin Lu1, Chu-Ren Huang2 The Hong Kong Polytechnic University12, University of Nottingham3, Peking University4, University of Essex5 Department of Computing, 11 Yuk Choi Road, Hung Hom, Hong Kong (China)1 Chinese and Bilingual Studies, 11 Yuk Choi Road, Hung Hom, Hong Kong (China)2 NIHR Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre, Nottingham (UK) 3 Engineering, University of Essex, Colchester (UK)4 School of Foreign Languages, 5 Yiheyuan Road, Haidian, Beijing (China)5 School of Computer Science and Electronic [email protected], [email protected], fmingyu.wan,jinghgu,[email protected], [email protected] Abstract Deep neural network models have played a critical role in sentiment analysis with promising results in the recent decade. One of the essential challenges, however, is how external sentiment knowledge can be effectively utilized. In this work, we propose a novel affection-driven approach to incorporating affective knowledge into neural network models. The affective knowledge is obtained in the form of a lexicon under the Affect Control Theory (ACT), which is represented by vectors of three-dimensional attributes in Evaluation, Potency, and Activity (EPA). The EPA vectors are mapped to an affective influence value and then integrated into Long Short-term Memory (LSTM) models to highlight affective terms. Experimental results show a consistent improvement of our approach over conventional LSTM models by 1.0% to 1.5% in accuracy on three large benchmark datasets.
    [Show full text]
  • Separation Anxiety Disorder in the DSM-5 Era
    Modern psychopathologies or old diagnoses? Separation anxiety disorder in the DSM-5 era C. Carmassi1, C. Gesi1, E. Massimetti1, M.K. Shear2, L. Dell’Osso1 1 Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy; 2 School of Social Work, Columbia University, New York, USA Summary In all cases, Separation Anxiety Disorder is associated with a Separation Anxiety Disorder has been recently classified into the severe impact on the overall functioning. Most relevant research DSM-5 section of Anxiety Disorders, acknowledging its role not in the field is discussed highlighting the need of a paradigm shift only in childhood and adolescence but also across the whole in which clinicians are alerted to identify and treat this con- lifespan. In the DSM-IV-TR, in fact, this condition was typically dition in all age upon the recent DSM-5 reformulation will be considered to begin in childhood. Clinical data report preva- highlighted. lence rates from 20 to 40%, showing high comorbidity rates with most mental disorders. Epidemiological data highlight that Key words in fact one third of childhood cases persist into adulthood, while Separation anxiety • Panic disorder • Anxiety disorders • Complicated the majority of adult cases reports its first onset in adulthood. grief • Post-traumatic stress disorder Separation anxiety disorder across the DSM-5 der are considered to be free of impairing anxiety over their lifetime. However, it has been shown that more The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual than one third of subjects classified as childhood cases of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) 1 has recently introduced might persist into adulthood 5 and some epidemiologi- important classification changes, including the intro- cal and clinical data have highlighted that the preva- duction of Separation Anxiety Disorder has into the sec- lence of Separation Anxiety Disorder might be greater tion of Anxiety Disorders.
    [Show full text]
  • From Grasping to Emptiness – Excursions Into the Thought-World of the Pāli Discourses (2)
    From Grasping to Emptiness – Excursions into the Thought-world of the Pāli Discourses (2) Anālayo © 2010 Anālayo Published by The Buddhist Association of the United States 2020 Route 301, Carmel, New York 10512 Printed in Taiwan Cover design by Laurent Dhaussy ISBN 978-0-615-25529-3 Introduction 3 1. Grasping / Upādāna 5 1.1 Grasping at Sensual Pleasures 5 1.2 Grasping at Views 7 1.3 Grasping at Rules and Observances 9 1.4 Grasping at a Doctrine of Self 10 1.5 The Five Aggregates [Affected by] Clinging 13 1.6 Grasping and Nibbāna 15 1.7 Freedom from Grasping 16 2. Personality View / Sakkāyadihi 19 2.1 Manifestations of Personality View 19 2.2 Removal of Personality View 24 3. Right View / Sammādihi 27 3.1 Wrong View 27 3.2 Right View and Investigation 29 3.3 Right View as the Forerunner of the Path 31 3.4 Arrival at Right View 33 3.5 Right View and the Four Noble Truths 34 4. Volitional Formations / Sakhārā 39 4.1 Sakhāras as an Aggregate 40 4.2 Sakhāras as a Link in Dependent Arising 44 4.3 Sakhāras in General 48 5. Thought / Vitakka 55 5.1 The Ethical Perspective on Thought 56 5.2 The Arising of Thought 57 5.3 The Vitakkasahāna-sutta 60 5.4 Vitakka in Meditation 64 5.5 Thought Imagery 66 6. Wise Attention / Yoniso Manasikāra 69 6.1 Wise ( Yoniso ) 69 6.2 Attention ( Manasikāra ) 72 6.3 The Implications of Wise Attention 72 6.4 The Importance of Wise Attention 78 7.
    [Show full text]
  • Epiphany in James Joyce's a Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man
    Epiphany in James Joyce's a Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Grgurić, Kristijan Undergraduate thesis / Završni rad 2019 Degree Grantor / Ustanova koja je dodijelila akademski / stručni stupanj: University of Rijeka, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences / Sveučilište u Rijeci, Filozofski fakultet Permanent link / Trajna poveznica: https://urn.nsk.hr/urn:nbn:hr:186:857533 Rights / Prava: In copyright Download date / Datum preuzimanja: 2021-09-24 Repository / Repozitorij: Repository of the University of Rijeka, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences - FHSSRI Repository UNIVERSITY OF RIJEKA FACULTY OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES Kristijan Grgurić Epiphany in James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the B.A. in English Language and Literature and Art History at the University of Rijeka Supervisor: Mr. sc. Irena Grubica, viši predavač Rijeka, September 2019 2 Abstract: The main focus of this thesis is explaining the notion of epiphany in James Joyce's novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, how the epiphanies in the novel affect the development of the protagonist, Stephen Dedalus, their relation to Joyce's theory of aesthetics, as well as the development and shift in the narrative aspect of the novel. In the first part of the thesis, I will introduce the character of Stephen Dedalus, the protagonist of the novel, contextualizing his line of thought, the first steps of his development as an artist and philosopher and his uniqueness as an individual. I will present the importance of epiphanies to Joyce's characters and Joyce himself, as well as putting the notion of epiphany in the context of modernist literature.
    [Show full text]
  • About Emotions There Are 8 Primary Emotions. You Are Born with These
    About Emotions There are 8 primary emotions. You are born with these emotions wired into your brain. That wiring causes your body to react in certain ways and for you to have certain urges when the emotion arises. Here is a list of primary emotions: Eight Primary Emotions Anger: fury, outrage, wrath, irritability, hostility, resentment and violence. Sadness: grief, sorrow, gloom, melancholy, despair, loneliness, and depression. Fear: anxiety, apprehension, nervousness, dread, fright, and panic. Joy: enjoyment, happiness, relief, bliss, delight, pride, thrill, and ecstasy. Interest: acceptance, friendliness, trust, kindness, affection, love, and devotion. Surprise: shock, astonishment, amazement, astound, and wonder. Disgust: contempt, disdain, scorn, aversion, distaste, and revulsion. Shame: guilt, embarrassment, chagrin, remorse, regret, and contrition. All other emotions are made up by combining these basic 8 emotions. Sometimes we have secondary emotions, an emotional reaction to an emotion. We learn these. Some examples of these are: o Feeling shame when you get angry. o Feeling angry when you have a shame response (e.g., hurt feelings). o Feeling fear when you get angry (maybe you’ve been punished for anger). There are many more. These are NOT wired into our bodies and brains, but are learned from our families, our culture, and others. When you have a secondary emotion, the key is to figure out what the primary emotion, the feeling at the root of your reaction is, so that you can take an action that is most helpful. .
    [Show full text]
  • Finding the Golden Mean: the Overuse, Underuse, and Optimal Use of Character Strengths
    Counselling Psychology Quarterly ISSN: 0951-5070 (Print) 1469-3674 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ccpq20 Finding the golden mean: the overuse, underuse, and optimal use of character strengths Ryan M. Niemiec To cite this article: Ryan M. Niemiec (2019): Finding the golden mean: the overuse, underuse, and optimal use of character strengths, Counselling Psychology Quarterly, DOI: 10.1080/09515070.2019.1617674 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/09515070.2019.1617674 Published online: 20 May 2019. Submit your article to this journal View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=ccpq20 COUNSELLING PSYCHOLOGY QUARTERLY https://doi.org/10.1080/09515070.2019.1617674 ARTICLE Finding the golden mean: the overuse, underuse, and optimal use of character strengths Ryan M. Niemiec VIA Institute on Character, Cincinnati, OH, USA ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY The science of well-being has catalyzed a tremendous amount of Received 28 February 2019 research with no area more robust in application and impact than Accepted 8 May 2019 the science of character strengths. As the empirical links between KEYWORDS character strengths and positive outcomes rapidly grow, the research Character strengths; around strength imbalances and the use of strengths with problems strengths overuse; strengths and conflicts is nascent. The use of character strengths in understand- underuse; optimal use; ing and handling life suffering as well as emerging from it, is particularly second wave positive aligned within second wave positive psychology. Areas of particular psychology; golden mean promise include strengths overuse and strengths underuse, alongside its companion of strengths optimaluse.Thelatterisviewedasthe golden mean of character strengths which refers to the expression of the right combination of strengths, to the right degree, and in the right situation.
    [Show full text]
  • Righteous Indignation I
    John 2:13-22 13The Jewish Passover was near, so Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and money changers sitting at tables. 15He made a whip of cords and drove everyone out of the temple courts, along with the sheep and oxen. He scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16To those selling doves he said, “Get these things out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a place of business!” 17His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” 18So the Jews responded, “What sign are you going to show us to prove you can do these things?” 19Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again.” 20The Jews said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple! And you are going to raise it in three days?” 21But Jesus was speaking about the temple of his body. 22When Jesus was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this. Then they believed the Scripture and what Jesus had said. Righteous Indignation I. You sigh as you enter church. It’s that time of year again—the time leading up to Passover. Jewish faithful from all over the world are coming to make their pilgrimage to the temple to make their sacrifices and pay their temple-tax. It probably all seems very practical and pragmatic to the Jewish out-of-town-ers. They’ll stop in the equivalent of the narthex area for all the necessary items for their sacrifices.
    [Show full text]
  • Righteous Vs. Misguided Anger Know the Difference
    1.13.2018 Righteous Vs. Misguided Anger Know The Difference We live in a culture that simultaneously promotes Angry Responses while at the same time rewards Keeping Cool at all costs. Twitter, YouTube and nightly news reports are filled with Angry Videos that have millions of views. We see on a daily basis some politician with crocodile tears foisting some new victimhood narrative. At the same time, real injustice with life and death consequences is being dealt with lukewarm conviction. More so, real Discipline is being ignored altogether because a Righteous Anger has been muffled, stifled, suppressed, repressed, throttled and otherwise choked out of existence. Anger is a completely normal and usually healthy human emotion. It is a natural adaptive response to hazards, dangers, threats and perils to one’s personal safety and security. Anger inspires powerful, often aggressive, feelings and behaviors, which allow us to fight and defend ourselves when we are attacked. A certain amount of anger is necessary for our survival and for the survival of the loved ones placed in our care. Civil Society however, has mitigated the need for one to walk around in a constant state of assertive belligerence. However, we still have feelings of anger and frustration because of very real and inescapable problems in our lives. Everyone needs to learn the difference between Righteous and Misguided Anger. While anger is not in itself wrong, it is accurately grouped into the concept of Wrath, one of the 7 Deadly Sins. If left unchecked, anger can lead to Wrath. The difference is in intensity, force and passion.
    [Show full text]
  • Grief Support Resources
    grief support resources 24/7 crisis hotline The Light Beyond: thelightbeyond.com The Harris Center: 713-970-7000 A forum, short movie, blog, e-cards and library to support those in grief. web sites: Bo’s Place: bosplace.org UNITE: unitegriefsupport.org A bereavement center offering grief support services to Offers a number of services to grieving parents and children, ages 3 to 18, and their families who have caregivers including the following: grief support experienced the death of a child or an adult in their groups, literature, educational programs, training workshops, immediate family, as well as programs for grieving group development assistance and referral assistance. adults. Bo’s Place is founded on the belief that grieving children sharing their experiences with each other infant specific: greatly helps in their grief journey. Bo’s Place is located March of Dimes: marchofdimes.com in Houston, TX and has employees that speak Spanish. The mission of the March of Dimes is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature MISS Foundation: missfoundation.org birth and infant mortality. The organization carries out its A volunteer-based organization committed to providing mission through research, community services, education crisis support and long-term aid to families after the and advocacy to save babies’ lives. March of Dimes death of a child from any cause. MISS also participates researchers, volunteers, educators, outreach workers and in legislative and advocacy issues, community advocates work together to give all babies a fighting engagement and volunteerism and culturally chance against the threats to their health: prematurity, competent, multidisciplinary, education opportunities.
    [Show full text]
  • Attachment Style, Empathy, and Schadenfreude
    Attachment Style, Empathy, and Schadenfreude: How Close Relationships Influence Reactions toward Others in Need Alison Baren & Claudia Brumbaugh The Graduate Center, City University of New York; Queens College, City University of New York Introduction Study 1 Results Study 2 We studied attachment style’s, how people experience close 4 Exploratory Factor Analysis relationships, impact on emotional responses toward envied and non‐envied others in need (Study 1) and developed and validated a trait schadenfreude Using a scree plot test (Catell, 1966), one clear factor emerged 3 scale (Study 2). (eigenvalue of 10.35). This factor accounts for 31.36% of variance. Of Ratings the initial 36‐items, 24 loaded strongly onto this factor. Common emotional responses toward others in need (Davis, 1983; Smith et al., 1996): 2 Items with strong loadings onto single factor. *loading values Personal Distress Empathy Schadenfreude Please rate the following statements (1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree) self‐focused understanding joy from another’s Emotional 1. I can’t help but feel good when a fellow classmate doesn’t do well on an exam. (.615)* concern another’s feelings misfortune 1 High Envy 2. I feel joy when I learn of other people's breakups. (.515) 3. I feel good after learning of a celebrity who experiences a downfall. (.609) Low Envy 4. I often feel joy from witnessing others’ misfortunes. (.585) Does envy predict empathy and personal distress, as it predicts 0 Empathy Personal Distress Schadenfreude 5. I feel satisfied when a coworker fails to get a promotion. (.809) schadenfreude (Smith et al., 1996)? 6.
    [Show full text]
  • Schadenfreude and Decisions
    Schadenfreude and Decisions Johanna Katarina Blomster Submitted as a Master Thesis in Cognitive Neuroscience Department of Psychology UNIVERSITY OF OSLO May 2015 II III IV © Author Year: 2015 Title: Schadenfreude and Decisions Author: Johanna Katarina Blomster http://www.duo.uio.no V VI Abstract Schadenfreude is the pleasure derived from another person’s misfortune, and several antecedents for schadenfreude has been identified, such as envy, self-enhancement, and deservingness. However, little is known about the effect of feeling schadenfreude on subsequent decisions. The present thesis investigates in four studies the effect of schadenfreude on decisions, which aimed at extending the previous research of Kramer, Yucel-Aybat, and Lau-Gesk (2011). It was expected that participants feeling schadenfreude would choose more conventional options compared to controls because the feeling of schadenfreude informs people of the possibility that a misfortune can befall them. Schadenfreude was induced either through a video clip chosen based on the results from the pre-test (Study 1 and 2) or through an affective priming task (Study 3 and 4). The decision tasks were the ultimatum game (Study 1 and 2), an economic version of the Asian disease problem (Study 3), and a consumer choice task involving compromise and extreme options (Study 4). Study 1 through 3 showed no effect of schadenfreude on decisions. However, Study 4 showed that schadenfreude increased the choice of unconventional (i.e., extreme) options (p = .037), which is the opposite of the predicted effect. These results are discussed in relation to the importance of replication studies and future studies. VII Summary Name of Author: Johanna Katarina Blomster Name of Supervisor: Anine Riege Title of Thesis: Schadenfreude and Decisions Schadenfreude is the pleasure at another’s misfortune.
    [Show full text]
  • Positive Psychology
    7 WAYS TO APPLY POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY Learn practical, proven strategies to live a happier, more engaged and more meaningful life. We all want to live happier, more engaging and more meaningful lives. The science of positive psychology contributes new Introduction insights and proven strategies to increase wellbeing in individuals, workplaces and communities. After years classifying and repairing the worst of human experience, positive psychology emerged to help us flourish and learn from the best. This rich and varied field now spans many areas, building on philosophies and practices from Aristotle to Maslow. This eBook introduces you to some of the most practical and research-backed ways to apply positive psychology to increase happiness, wellbeing and effectiveness—in your life, at work, at home and with the people you care for, help and lead. You will learn: • How to maximise the power of positivity to create sustainable pathways to happiness and success. • Seven positive psychology practices - “[Positive Psychology is] the from optimism to mindfullness. scientific study of positive • Tips to apply these practices at work, at human functioning and home and when helping people. flourishing on multiple levels.” We look forward to inspiring you and others to live a Martin Seligman &Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi happier, more engaged and fulfilling life! The Langley Group team © 2015 Langley Group. All rights reserved 2 Positive psychology 7 POSITIVE PRACTICES Positive emotion 1 Generating positive emotions helps broaden and build our resources and moves us toward greater wellbeing. Spearheaded by Martin Seligman and Mindset Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in 1998, positive 2 psychology focuses on exploring and Adopting a positive attitude and Growth Mindset enhances learning and opens our expanding what makes life worthwhile, mind to new ways to raise happiness levels.
    [Show full text]